In one conventional computing arrangement, a client and a server include respective I/O controllers that are capable of communicating with each other using a Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) protocol. In order to transfer data from the server to the client, the data and a descriptor pointing to the data are both written to the server's main system memory. Thereafter, in response to a doorbell provided to the server's I/O controller, the server's I/O controller reads the descriptor. The server's I/O controller then reads the data pointed to by the descriptor. The server's I/O controller then transmits the data to the client. As can be appreciated, the latency involved in the data transfer from the server to the client increases with the number of main memory read operations carried out by the server's I/O controller.
In order to try to reduce the latency associated with the server main memory read operations, it has been proposed to place the data in line (e.g., in or near) the descriptor in the server's main system memory. However, even using this technique, the latency involved in carrying out the data transfer from the server to the client may remain greater than desirable.
Although the following Detailed Description will proceed with reference being made to illustrative embodiments, many alternatives, modifications, and variations thereof will be apparent to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, it is intended that the claimed subject matter be viewed broadly.